Joe Biden went on NBC's morning shows and teased a 2020 presidential run

Former Vice President Joe Biden teased a 2020 run on the Today Show on Monday morning.
Screenshot/NBC

Former Vice President Joe Biden made the rounds on Monday morning's news shows to promote his new book and tease a 2020 presidential run.

Biden, 74, has been active behind the scenes on issues including healthcare, and he refuses to rule out the possibility of running for president.

Former Vice President Joe Biden made the rounds on NBC's morning's news shows to promote his new book, "Promise Me, Dad," about how he dealt with the loss of his 46-year-old son, Beau, to brain cancer in 2015.

But the conversation on NBC's "Today" show and Megyn Kelly's morning show quickly turned to politics, President Donald Trump, and the possibility of Biden, who is 74, launching a 2020 presidential bid.

"I honest to God haven't made up my mind about that,'' Biden told the "Today" hosts when asked about a 2020 run. "I'm not closing the door. I've been around too long."

He added, "I'm a great respecter of fate, but who knows what the situation is going to be in a year and a half? I don't have any idea. I'm in good health now, I'm in good shape... but I just don't know. Honest to God, that's the truth."

But Biden, who's been open about his financial struggles, said that he's always understood and represented the middle class and would connect better than Trump has with the "rust belt" and working class voters. He argued that 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's economic message simply didn't make it through to voters during the 2016 election.

"I think there's real reason why a lot of middle class people are legitimately concerned with digitalization, artificial intelligence, whether there are gonna be jobs in the future," Biden said. "I think we have to respond and let them know there's significant hope."

Biden, a former senator from Delaware who ran for president in 1987 and 2007, has spoken openly about regretting his decision not to run in 2016 and has been critical of Clinton's campaign.

"I had planned on running for president and although it would have been a very difficult primary, I think I could have won," he said in March. "I don't know, maybe not. But I thought I could have won."

He went on, "I had a lot of data and I was fairly confident that if I were the Democratic Party's nominee, I had a better-than-ever chance of being president ... But do I regret not being president? Yes. I was the best qualified."

And Biden's family seems to be ready for another try. Former second lady Jill Biden said in June that her husband "is not going away."

Biden will be 77 in 2020, making him almost as old as another potential Democratic frontrunner, Sen. Bernie Sanders, who will be 79 during the next presidential election year.